AFGHANISTAN FIGHTING for freedom

It’s been 12 months since the Taliban tore through Afghanistan, displacing more than 6 million people and creating a humanitarian catastrophe. One year on, Kathryn Madden speaks to seven strong Afghan women about their lives, fears, hopes and needs

- Kathryn Madden

In August 2021, an image of 640 people crammed into a US military cargo plane sent shock waves around the world. Video footage depicted people clinging to the sides of a moving aeroplane, desperate to flee Afghanistan as the Taliban regained power. It had been 20 years since the militant group last ruled the country – ousted by the US-led invasion in 2001, then regaining control in 2021 during the final withdrawal of Western troops.

In the months that followed those gut-wrenching images, the international spotlight on Afghanistan faded but the crisis continued. Some Afghans navigated new lives in new countries; others were stifled under a fundamentalist regime in their homeland. Research by Women for Women International found that 97 per cent of women in Afghanistan are experiencing restrictions on their freedoms, and the UN says 95 per cent of all Afghans do not have enough to eat.

Yet even in the face of terror and trauma, Afghan women are unified by the courage coursing through their veins. “We’re so much more than the politics that we’ve endured,” says Diana Sayed, a, human rights lawyer, former Afghan refugee and CEO of the Australian Muslim Women’s Centre for Human Rights. “We just want the dignity to drive our own lives. We are the leaders in our homes; we are the leaders in our communities; we are the leaders in the diaspora … I’m really proud of the history of my [female] ancestors who have fought back against so much. They not only survived but thrived; they’ve not only existed but continued to resist.”

THE WOMEN WHO FLED

JUDGE MIRMAN DIL'ARAM ABID